Comment: My son recently mentioned that he had heard that "the guy who
designed/developed/created the Big Mac sandwich for McDonald's receives
$0.25 for every Big Mac sold, and now that he's died, his family gets it."

I explained to my son that Ray Kroc was a very shrewd businessman, and
that I doubted he would ever give away that much money. I also doubted
there was any way to pay royalties on a sandwich design.

It seems to me that anyone who "invented" the Big Mac would already be working for the company and be receiving a salary for their job. Doubtful is the case that they patened the idea for the burger and McDonald's bought it. Why would they? It's just a burger.

The Big Mac was created at a McDonald's in Uniontown, Pennsylvania by a police officer named Ronald "Cuts" Curry, but the credit was given to the store owner, Jim Delligatti. Neither man received any royalties. http://thinkwebworks.com/ao/History.asp?ID=18